The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-09-22
CATTLE QUEENS.
Eight Hundred Colorado Women Who
Own and Manage Ranches.

IallureS III slOck-TalSlng nlaue III lIlIS
Western country, not one of them has
been made by women. You may say
what you please about the gentler sex
not being able to rustic with the
stern necessities of bread-gettiug, but
you can trust the stock-women, sir, to
look after their own interests every
time, and never, to my knowledge,
has one of them been left. They are
worth altogether several millions of
dollars and they have got the clearsst
heads and the best Judgment as re-
CARDS managing stock that | have ever
seen displayed by anybody.
mo, sir, | never heard of stock
woman falling in business .yet, and l
don't believe you ever did. They take
their risks, of course, but not unad-
They know what they are
doing, and they invariably make in
stead of losing. If you don't believe
this you can consult all the stock
journals in the country, and they will
prove that what | say to you is true. "
''Are you personally acquainted with
many women engaged in the business
of cattle-raising?" asked the reporter.
The cattleman gave a long, low
whistle.
"Well, l should think So" he said,
1--WE studied them for years. You
want to know what kind of women
they are? I'll tell you what sort they
are, young man; they're ladies; that's
what they are. Now, | don't mean by
that that they would be afraid of soil
ing their hands if occasion required; {;
no, indeed; nor of doing a charitable
action which would necessitate some
personal exposure on their part, for
they are generous to fault. What |
mean to say is that they are as a rule
read and think, and are capable of
making a good appearance in society.
| don't know as | have ever seen one
of them who is phenomenally intel
lectual, outside of the judgment they
exercise in the stock business, which
is phenomenal. Most of them have a
genius for business, and nine-tenths of
them know how to appear in a draw
ing-room.
''In most instances they are rich
and know well how to use their money
to advantage so as to get the most
good out of life. Many of them are
wives and mothers, and when they are
such ! assure you they are both wise
and kind. You will find that they rule
their households with firm hands, and
that their husbands and children, to
use biblical expression, rise up and
call them blessed.
Il dare say you thought that women
who engage in stock-raising were all
centaurs. Come now, didn't you?"
continued the cattleman. Riding
like the wind, half-clad, their tresses
flying behind them, and all the rest of
it, for all the world like picture from
Confess now, didn't youp
Il assure you, you could not have
had more erroneous impression.
Stock-women are much like others,
save that they have wider Judgment
on practical subjects. They are thor
oughly business-like, because they APP
preciate the vast interests which they
have at stake, and the quick cOncep-
tion with which all women are gifted
enables them to see clearly what the
inevitable results would be of one
false move. They know that their
decisions must be well weighed; that
they must act only under the most
careful consideration, and that once
having acted they must abide by their
decision with calm, answering
spirit. 1t is good training-school for
a woman. 1t takes all that idiotic
nonsense about nerves out of her and
gives her a brain-a cool, common
sense poise which many man might
envy.
There are necessarily exceptions to
all rules. The uncouth woman of the
ranch, who rounds up her own herds
and who sleeps III the saddle, is not
altogether creature of the imagina-
ton. Uncouth and ignorant she may
be, but she is always a good woman
and one whom all the cowboys respect
L know several instances where these
women can swing a lariat like man
and know quite as well how to manage
a herd. A very few of them person.
ally supervise their own animals, how
ever, and these in most instances are
those who have not vet accumulated
much wealth, although there are some
very rich cattle-women in Colorado
who ride after their own herds. This,
however, is very unusual. A woman
usually manages her cattle through q
foreman, whom she often supplies
with brain-power. She does not
live on the ranch, but rather
in handsome house in some neigh
boring town. But all the same she is
the bone and sinew of the business.
Her clear head manages it al, and It
Is through her directions that her fore
man always proceeds. She often
spends the summer on the ranch,
where comfortable dwelling is fitted
up for her, much on the order OF an
shooting-box.
Colorado women generally have
gone into the stock business" con-
cluded the cattleman, through a
direct line of inheritance, that is, they
have inherited either small herds, vast
ones, or taste and inclination for the
life. / know of numerous instances
where father has died leaving his
daughter a very small herd, and she
has gone steadily on with it, making
thousands where her father before her
made hundreds of dollars. Again
there are widows who have come into
possession Of vast stock interests
through the death of their husbands,
and whs have managed the business
left to them until its receipts run away
up in the millions.
81 know resolute women too, who
began without a dollar, and who have
gained wealth and standing in the
stock business. The most highly novel
sight | ever saw was a fourteen-year-
old girl herding cattle away up in
Montana, with only her little brother
to assist her. The father of these two
children had died, leaving them a
small herd of cattle, and | would be
willing to wager my last dollar that
that little brown-skinned girl away up
there in that wilderness viii yet count
her dollars by the thousands. OF the
800 stock-women now doing business
in Colorado, all are well and favor
ably known among cattle and sheep
men, any one of whom would gladly
befriend them in case of an emerg-
ency, but whom, on the other hand,
they are quite capable of advising in